Tree canopy and heat islands in Northampton

Northampton heat islands

Northampton has significant heat islands in the downtown area, the King Street corridor, Florence center, Cooley Dickinson / Smith Vocational School, and other areas.

Heat islands are clearly visible on this map of surface temperature at 11:30 am on July 2, 2024.

$Northampton heat islands$

Heat islands and tree canopy

The heat islands are all associated with low tree canopy. These maps show surface temperature and tree canopy separately:

When the two maps are overlaid, the relationship between tree canopy and heat is clear: hotter areas have lower canopy. Areas shown in pink have high temperatures and low canopy. Areas in green have low temperature and high canopy.

Plotting temperature against canopy coverage also shows the relationship between the two:

Sources

Temperature data: Landsat 9
Canopy data: Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium
Analysis: Kent S Johnson